Explosion kills 1 at AEP plant - Ted Pelling Explosion.pdf · "It was a roar and a boom," she said. "It rattled the windows. It sure did shake the town up." ... Microsoft PowerPoint

Explosion kills 1 at AEP plant

Driver of hydrogen delivery truck dies, 9 workers hurt; blast investigated

Tuesday, January 09, 2007RANDY LUDLOW AND MARY BETH LANE

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Firefighters spray down the area of the Muskingum River Plant blackened by an explosion. A truck driver

was killed yesterday morning as he delivered tubes of hydrogen gas to the southeastern Ohio power plant owned by American Electric Power. Authorities don?t know whether it was the truck or the gas that

exploded.

BEVERLY, Ohio

Investigators are searching for the cause of an explosion yesterday that killed a truck driver and injured nine

workers at a coal-burning power plant.

The driver was delivering pressurized hydrogen gas to American Electric Power?s Muskingum River Plant, where

it is used as a coolant in the plant generators.

The explosion occurred about 9:20 a.m., said Melissa McHenry, spokeswoman for Columbus-based AEP.

The force of the blast shredded, blackened and punched holes into the metal siding on the exterior of one of the

plant?s five units, and it injured nine workers who were inside at the time and within 70 feet of the explosion.

The workers were taken to five area hospitals with injuries that were deemed not lifethreatening, McHenry said. It was unknown whether it was the truck or the 10 hydrogen tubes it carried that exploded, or why, McHenry said.

The man killed was Lewis Timmons, 61, of Middlebourne, W.Va., and he worked for General Hydrogen, said

Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks.

General Hydrogen is a subsidiary of Cryogenics Gas Inc., a company based in Washington, Pa., which also supplies hydrogen to other AEP plants, spokeswoman Eileen Zullo said.

AEP officials would not immediately identify the injured workers.

The blast at the plant along the Muskingum River in Washington County, about 75 miles southeast of Columbus,

reverberated through the river valley. It was felt in Beverly, a village about 3 miles to the southeast.

Jo Ann Clark, a 48-year-old Beverly resident, was preparing to leave for her job at a local BP gas station when

she heard and felt the explosion. "It was a roar and a boom," she said. "It rattled the windows. It sure did shake the town up."

Four of the plant?s units continued to hum along yesterday, generating electricity. But unit five, the closest to the

blast, was shut down. It is the newest and largest of the five units at the plant and generates 585 megawatts of the

plant?s normal 1,425-megawatt capacity, company officials said.

The Muskingum River Plant has 210 workers, McHenry said. This was the first fatality in five or six years, since an employee fell into the river and drowned, officials said.

"We will be conducting a thorough investigation to determine the cause of this explosion," plant manager Dan

Kohler said in a news release.

Federal safety officials were at the plant yesterday to investigate. Although hydrogen gas is highly explosive, it is used to cool steam generators at the plant because it has a high

capacity for heat and is more efficient than using air.

Hydrogen is delivered to the plant about once a week, AEP spokeswoman Vikki Michalski said.